Mae West...

[fajrdrako]

One of the books I've been reading lately is The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West. It makes me wonder why we don't see the same sort of clever wit now that we used to have in the early-to-mid twentieth century - say, starting around the time of Oscar Wilde and continuing with people like Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Mae West, Dorothy Parker, Winston Churchill, and Groucho Marx.

Examples from Mae West - sometimes from interviews and comments she made, sometimes from her movies and shows:

• His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.



• It's better to be looked over than overlooked.



• There are no good girls gone wrong; there are bad girls found out.



• That guy's so crooked he uses a corkscrew for a ruler.



• Gentlemen may prefer blondes - but who says that blondes prefer gentlemen?



• I'm the regal type - that's not a posture you learn in school, dearie. It's the way you look at the world.



• Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.



• I used to be Snow White... but I drifted.



• Love isn't an emotion or an instinct - it's an art.



• Love thy neighbour - and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.



• If you put your foot in it, make sure it's your best foot.



• He who hesitates is last.

Comments

[cyberducks.livejournal.com]

She is great! A dame!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Add her to my list of heroes.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I've loved her for years. She wrote her own material, and deliberately gave the censors a headache, as consummate mistress of the double-entendre...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd like to read a proper biography of her. Just reading these sayings, I was quite enchanted by her - she saw life clearly, and knew her own mind. She was brilliant: teaching the world with humour.

[filkferengi]

And got to do a film with a young & yummy Tom Selleck when she was in her 80s--she definitely went quipping into that good night!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! She is my new role model.